The Background
In 1997 Barrow Borough Council asked The Ashton Group to produce
a community play for Barrow. What eventually became Barramundi
took 3 years of community development and fundraising. Instead
of one big show we decided it might be better to make a number
of smaller shows so that lots of people could be involved
at all kinds of different levels, and that there should be
lots of writers involved to give a wide range of voices. On
this principal we put together a mixture of writers from Barrow
itself and from outside the town. So alongside Barrow’s
Sarah Miller, Kate Davies, Phil Gregg and John Hall are Julia
Darling from Newcastle and Kevin Fegan from Manchester. Added
to this mix, some of the performers devised their own material,
young people from Ormsgill and Barrow Island and the members
of Barrow Deaf Drama Group.
Some of the Barramundi stories
were based loosely on real events, some were entirely fictional
but set in real places around the town. They were imagined
happenings, stories spun out, gossip and tall tales such
as you might hear told in any playground, bar, supermarket
checkout or doctors waiting room across the town.
The nine plays
that made up Barramundi were performed over three nights
at Forum 28 in Barrow in 2000.
INTERGENERATIONAL
CHOIR
As part of Barramundi,
The Ashton group ran an Intergenerational Choir project
in partnership with Ormsgill Primary School, Age Concern
(Building Bridges Project) and Urban Voice. Sarah Miller
ran creative lyric writing workshops with a mixed group
of Year 6 pupils and senior citizens. The songs reflected
the different views of Barrow across the generations and
celebrated their shared experience of the town. Tyndale
Thomas of Manchester’s Urban Voice put the lyrics
to music and the finished songs where then recorded onto
CD in the studio at Lantern House in Ulverston. The choir’s
work is part of the National Foundation for Youth Music’s,
‘Singing Challenge’.
Click on the link below for more details
of the shows
Night
One -Young Voices
Neighbears
Sherbert!
The
Nightmare Slayer
Night Two - Folk gettin'
on with it
Billy
Lomas
Dangerous
Business
Bluebird
Night Three - Another
Saturday Night
White
Van Man
The
Night that Tom Jones came to Barrow
The
Bull, the Pull and the Strip
THE
PRODUCTION TEAM
Artistic Director Rachel Ashton
Associate Director Sarah Miller
Assistant Director Phill Gregg
Design
Andrew Wood
Production Manager Gary Bridgens
Lighting Design Dave Hill
Deputy Stage Manager Alina Hutchinson
Sound Urban Voice, Manchester (Andy Williams and Tyndale
Thomas)
Click
here for participants feedback, press reviews and statisitics
